Miller KE, Brownlee C, Heald R. The power of amphibians to elucidate mechanisms of size control and scaling.
Exp Cell Res 2020;
392:112036. [PMID:
32343955 PMCID:
PMC7246146 DOI:
10.1016/j.yexcr.2020.112036]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2020] [Revised: 04/19/2020] [Accepted: 04/22/2020] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
Size is a fundamental feature of biology that affects physiology at all levels, from the organism to organs and tissues to cells and subcellular structures. How size is determined at these different levels, and how biological structures scale to fit together and function properly are important open questions. Historically, amphibian systems have been extremely valuable to describe scaling phenomena, as they occupy some of the extremes in biological size and are amenable to manipulations that alter genome and cell size. More recently, the application of biochemical, biophysical, and embryological techniques to amphibians has provided insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying scaling of subcellular structures to cell size, as well as how perturbation of normal size scaling impacts other aspects of cell and organism physiology.
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